– Why didn’t Satan also kill Job’s wife?
-What do Job’s friends believe his great sin that needs to be punished is?
-It seems as if Job’s friends only went to see him in order to tell Job that he got what he deserved. They need to tell him he has sinned and needs to be punished. Job is no longer God’s favorite with all His blessing.
I found Job’s story to be very intense. The Old Testament seems to have many stories that represent a harsher God than what I have previously learned about. Job’s story is unique. I don’t understand if God really has faith in Job and knows he will triumph, or if he is just as curious as Satan is to find out just how committed Job is. I don’t think anyone can blame Job for doubting God. He had so many misfortunes come his way at the hand of God, all the while his friends and wife doubted God. Additionally, his friends seemed to blame him. This made me think Satan had the upper hand at this bet. Satan was present in the doubt of Job’s friends, even if he did not manipulate them himself. I liked how this story flowed. The events themselves are kind of traumatic, therefor it was nice to read some of it in a more poetic form. If this was plain narrative retelling hardship after hardship I would most likely find it hard to stomach. Even with Job doubting God, I still found myself routing for him as an underdog. Additionally, I was also mad at God at points. I wonder what the intention of this story was.
I approached the book of Job with the belief that I knew already the events that took place and that Job would stay devoted to God throughout. I was surprised to learn how he ends up cursing his life and blaming God for his misery. However, I was not surprised because this is an inappropriate reaction to his situation. On the contrary, one would find this to be the expected response to the suffering that a man as good and devout as Job is, to have. I was surprised at the fact that the bible would have a book so heavily devoted to questioning God in and of itself. Here we have Job, who seems to have become a romantic nihilist, believing that the universe is working against him, which, in reality, it is. He has become so downtroddn and despondent that he is BEGGING God for death, asking for God to crush him and put him out of his misery. Of course, God is opposed to this, because God does not want to kill one of his most loyal and devout worshippers. In this way God shows us how inhuman he can be, lacking any empathy towards Job and valuing Job only based on Job being alive. It is also interesting, that during this entire ordeal, Job never once questions the existence of God. Perhaps the idea that God does not exist is still to radical for even the most tortured of souls at the time of this writing. Or maybe there is a certain message here, about the existence of God. Perhaps this story is trying to say that its fine to be angry with God, but to deny his existence is impossible. One other interesting aspect is how women are viewed in this text, specifically with respect to Job’s wife. Even when Job loses everything, he still has his wife, who he is supposed to love, and yet he laments as if he was left with nothing and no one. He even insults his wife, when she tells him, rightly so, that God has forsaken him, and Job treats her like a moron.
I find the Job story to very interesting. He is a character we all can relate to at some point in our lives, what is different is I believe that most of us accuse or blame God for our troubles instead of cursing ourselves (book 3). Satan used as a character that works with God, in some counsel that over looks the world, is interesting and the fact that he is not the “devil” character makes Satan a more realistic character, as realistic as he can be. We see a man who has everything taken from him and his friends of accuse him of being wicked. He never falters. There is a big focus on wickedness and knowledge vs. materials. Job Books tries to explain “why do the innocent (selfless) suffer”
-Nick